Dark and Troubling Thoughts I have been taking a break from the art communities the last several days, for the most part. I spend so much time at three of them that sometimes I need to recharge my batteries. This writing I posted this morning at Deviant Art, and after reading TallPocket's commentary, I decided to post this here as well. This is my two-cents worth. While taking a break from the art sites, I decided to watch some television. I don't watch that much, because I am usually online. However while surfing channels the other night, I found on PBS, a movie I vaguely recalled from childhood. "Judgement at Nuremberg". I was 10 when it was made in 1961. I remember family members talking about this movie. One of my uncles who had been in the service in World War II had married my aunt, whom he had met while stationed in Germany. She and her sister had barely escaped with their lives. It was 20 years before my aunt Erica got to go back to Germany to see her parents. This movie, like Schindler's List had a deep and lasting impression on me. I am 55 years old, and I still can't get my mind around the fact that there are such inhuman people that did, and still live upon the face of this earth. I have no political affiliations. I have never voted, I never will. That offends many people. I love my country, this land, my people. I don't trust my government. It is that simple, and that complex. I am grateful that there are, and have been men and women who were willing to serve and die for my right to be able to speak freely of what I feel and believe in. I have such mixed feelings about what is happening in the world today. No one will ever convince me that both of the gulf wars were about the rights of humanity. I don't believe that. It was and is about petroleum. Think about this: Put this petroleum 'shortage' in World War II Europe. With Germany as the country that had millions of barrels of it in reserve. Would Hitler have been able to accomplish what he did? America knew, England knew what was going on over there. Where was that finely tuned sense of moral responsibility then? Same place it is now. In everyone's bank account! It isn't about nationality at all. It is about the quality of the human heart and spirit, or more to the point, the lack of it. It is about the grasping pervading nature of greed, and power. I believe that famine could be done away with. My God! We can grow rows upon rows of corn for alcohol to be used as an alternative fuel, but we can't feed our own hungry people in this country, or the world? I watch the news and it sickens me. Every major news network reports the 'news' and then wants your 'opinion' on what is going on. The fact that this subject is one of the network's choice doesn't seem to enter people's minds. It is subterfuge. While they feed our egos, what is really happening everywhere else? Where is your focus? It is where they want it to be. I don't have any answers, only questions. I think we are on a collision course with doom. I think it is only a matter of time. I don't know if anything can be done to stop the momentum. Every day we are faced with the possibility of the destruction of life. Our weather is becoming more erratic than before. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, war, pestilence, violence, famine. Do you feel the hot breath of the Four horse-men breathing down your neck? I do. Well, and all of this before 0700! Despite all this negative stuff, it seems to me that we must live our lives as best we can. Hold those we love close and cherish them. Share what is in our hearts and minds, and the beauty within, the beauty of our art as well. Thanks for the big think! Beware: I have an Ink Pen, and I know how to use it!